120 FKOM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



fishing-boats are very curiously constructed, being made out 

 of many pieces of wood strongly sewn together. I remember 

 seeing one that had a bottom made of fourteen separate bits. 

 The sterns are carried high out of the water and the bows are 

 cut square. For fishing, a large circular net is attached 

 between the fork made by two poles joining in the boat at 

 the bow another which is weighted with a stone at the end 

 and worked as a lever to lower the net in and out of the water. 

 The nets which stick out beyond the bows like the transparent 

 wings of a great dragon-fiy give the boats a quaint appearance 

 as they float down the river. 



The river is full of fish. There is one almost the size of 

 a man, known to the Hausas as " Giwan Rua " (the elephant 

 of the water). During the night the large fishingTboats are 

 drawn up across the river in echelon from the bank, and boys 

 in small boats beat the water, driving the fish into the Qul-de- 

 sac so formed. For catching the smaller fish there is another 

 method. The fishermen sit astride bundles of maria, a very 

 fight, pith-hke wood, in mid-stream holding downwards in 

 the water large circular nets, the shafts of which are about 

 20 ft. in length hke exaggerated butterfly-nets. It is a strange 

 sight to see the silent men, apparently unsupported by outside 

 agency or their own efforts, riding down the stream. 



In the evening I paid a visit to the Sultan Jaggra. He 

 conducted me through the rooms of his palace and after- 

 wards round his stables to show me his horses of which 

 he had many. He pointed with pride to a beautiful roan 

 which had come from Kanem and had cost him 100 dollars, 

 equalling £14, a very large price for any horse in Western or 

 Central Africa. Horses of fourteen to fifteen hands are rare 



